The Wanderer Returns

Tuesday 28th December 2010
Well we cunningly timed our return just to miss the snow. Apparently there were drifts 4 foot deep outside the house.
A lovely couple of weeks down with the kids and grandchildren. Grandchildren make you remember what Christmas should be like and they certainly reminded me that it is more blessed to give than to recieve, more fun aswell.
The sadness at leaving the children and grand kids again to return is though, overpowering. If I could split myself in two then I would gladly do it. It really should be the children that leave home to have a new life and the parents that remain to be a base in time of troubles and not the other way round. As Gareth says, "it is just to far" and we can not just visit or be visited for a weekend.
I suppose that the sadness at parting is the penalty that must be paid for having a close and loving family but I would not have it any other way.

Aint love a bummer?

It was however, nice to get home and this is still a beautiful place even if somewhat grey and overcast at the moment.
After landing at Kirkwall airport Pam decided that we had better go to Tesco's before we went home. This was just pure malicious spite. All we needed was milk which we could have got from the village stores in Burray. We did however manage to fill a trolley with a host of other things which I was obviously to niave to have realised that we really needed.

When we got back to the house Pam was a bit disappointed that the extension was not totally finished and complete with christmas tree with presents under and a choir outside. I had a sneaking suspicion that the weeks over Christmas and new year may be a "Tak hid slow" time up here and apart from the ever reliable Duncan and Gavin the decorator, this seems to have been the case. Orcadians have made an art form out of relaxing and getting the most out of life and that is one of the great things about being here. We can hardly then, try and get everyone to rush around just because we want something done.

Wednesday 29th December 2010
I went to collect Molly from the kennels first thing. It was to late to pick her up last night but I had felt guilty about leaving her in kennels over Christmas and wanted to pick her up as soon as possible. I don't think that it makes much difference to Molly whether she is left in kennels at Christmas or at any other time as she is not a particularly religious dog. The next time that she is going into kennels is at Easter, so you never know, she may start to make the relgious connection.
When I picked Molly up, she was very grovelling and she is just coming into heat. No visits from randy Jock for a couple of weeks then.

WE nipped into Kirkwall later as Pam wanted to pay for some flooring that has been fitted in the shower but they were shut. I wanted some duck food from Shearers but they didn't have any. We went to Tesco's to buy a big telly they had cheap in their sale but they didn't have any which they can sell. ( They are getting more in tomorrow but the price reduction ends today so the price will double tomorrow)

I thought that this was a particularly good marketing strategy by Tesco'. Vastly reduce the price of things that you have not got and then tell people that you will be getting more in just as soon as the sale ends. They did of course still have the demo model but you can not buy that as nobody in Tesco's is qualified to unplug it.

Anyway we bought a telly from OTE, so bollocks to Tesco's.
The salesman at OTE was trying to sell me a 3D telly. It was definitely different but just looked wierd instead of realistic. I think that I will wait until they have got good hologram televisions, then I can project wildlife documentaries about rabbits or cats onto the carpet and confuse the dog.

Thursday 30th December 2010
Dave and Claire are round tonight for a meal, so Pam is spending all day cooking.
It turned out to be a lovely meal even though Pam forgot to serve the roast potatoes. There was plenty for everyone anyway and enough bread and butter pudding left over for me tomorrow.

Molly is being a pain at the moment because she is on heat. I took her for a walk this morning and she was stopping every 20 yards to have a pee, even if she could only squeeze a drop out. Then she had a good roll in it and lay on her back with her feet in the air refusing to go anywhere.
I assume that she was trying to lay a trail for Jock, or any other dog come to that as she is a tart.